Which individuals or organizations have financially supported Blexit and are they disclosed publicly?
Executive summary
Blexit has two distinct wings in reporting: a grassroots Minneapolis-origin Blexit that built the Village Financial Cooperative and raised nearly $4 million for community banking [1], and the Candace Owens–led BLEXIT Foundation that later tied itself to Turning Point USA and received major outside donations, including a reported $100,000 from the Thomas W. Smith family foundation in 2020 [1] [2]. Public disclosures are mixed: official nonprofit records and sites (GuideStar, Blexit/TPUSA pages, IRS 990 aggregators) exist and show some financial information, while independent reporting and watchdogs say substantial funding came from wealthy conservative backers and donor-advised funds that can obscure individual sources [3] [4] [5] [2].
1. Origins and two competing “Blexits”
The name and original mission trace to Me’Lea Connelly and a Minneapolis grassroots project focused on economic independence after Philando Castile’s killing; that original Blexit backed the Village Financial Cooperative and had raised close to $4 million for that credit-union effort [1]. Separately, Candace Owens co-founded a politically oriented BLEXIT Foundation in 2018 that positioned itself to move Black voters away from the Democratic Party and later formally partnered with Turning Point USA in March 2023 [6] [4] [1]. Reporting treats these as distinct initiatives that share a name but different missions and funders [1].
2. Who public sources list as supporters
Turning Point USA publicly announced it was “powering” the BLEXIT Foundation, and the Blexit site now presents itself as “BLEXIT powered by Turning Point USA,” indicating organizational support and likely shared infrastructure or fundraising channels [4] [7]. OpenSecrets maintains an outside‑spending profile for a “Blexit Fund” that can list donors and affiliates tied to federal outside spending, suggesting some political spending activity is tracked publicly [8] [9].
3. Reported wealthy conservative backers and donations
Investigations and watchdog reporting have identified specific large donors to the Owens-led operation. ExposedbyCMD reported the Thomas W. Smith family foundation donated $100,000 to the Blexit Foundation in 2020 and framed Smith as a major funder of conservative causes, saying much of BLEXIT’s support has come from wealthy white conservative backers and donor‑advised funds [2] [5]. SourceWatch and other summaries repeat that characterization, noting donor composition that includes major conservative networks tied to TPUSA [5].
4. What official filings and nonprofit profiles reveal
GuideStar/Instrumentl profiles and digitized IRS Form 990 aggregators exist for Blexit Foundation Inc., and they describe the organization’s mission, activities and volunteer counts—standard public nonprofit disclosures that provide some financial metrics [3] [10]. Forbes reporting contrasts the grassroots Blexit economic project and the Owens/TPUSA political iteration, indicating different money flows and missions [1]. OpenSecrets’ outside‑spending pages likewise provide a public trail for political expenditures associated with a named Blexit fund [8] [9].
5. Where transparency is limited or obscured
Multiple sources caution that donor‑advised funds, private foundations and conservative networks can obscure ultimate individual donors; ExposedbyCMD and SourceWatch claim that a “majority” of support came from wealthy conservative backers and donor‑advised funds—forms that reduce direct public visibility of individual givers [2] [5]. OpenSecrets data capture some outside spending but may not show all charitable gifts or funds routed through donor vehicles [8] [9]. Thus while some contributions appear in public filings and reporting, other support may be difficult to trace fully in public records [3] [2].
6. Competing narratives and potential agendas
Journalistic and watchdog sources diverge in tone and emphasis. Forbes and Minneapolis‑rooted reporting highlight the economic‑justice origins and community banking achievements of the original Blexit [1]. By contrast, conservative outlets and TPUSA emphasize a political mission to change voting behavior and celebrate the organizational tie‑up [4] [7]. Independent critics and left‑leaning watchdogs stress that wealthy white conservative donors and donor‑advised funds bankrolled the Owens version, implying a political strategy to influence Black voters [2] [5].
7. Bottom line and reporting limitations
Available sources show that both grassroots economic Blexit efforts and the Owens/TPUSA BLEXIT Foundation exist, that Turning Point USA now “powers” the latter [4], and that at least one identifiable large gift ($100,000 from the Thomas W. Smith foundation in 2020) has been publicly reported [2]. Sources also show public nonprofit records (GuideStar/990 aggregators) and OpenSecrets tracking for political spending, but they report that donor‑advised funds and conservative networks have provided funding that is harder to trace—meaning full disclosure of every individual or entity backer is not visible in the linked reporting [3] [2] [8]. Available sources do not mention a comprehensive, single public ledger listing all donors across both distinct Blexit entities.
If you want, I can pull the GuideStar/990 entries and the OpenSecrets donor list referenced above into a side‑by‑side summary so you can see which dollars are itemized publicly and which are attributed by investigative reporting [3] [8] [2].